How to Power ON/OFF your HTPC using a Remote?

The Power ON and OFF feature seems so wanted in the HTPC market nowadays...
I have to admit that i enjoy this feature very much on my own HTPC!
Since i've been asked alot on how I've done it,
i thought i'd simply share the 'known' ways to achieve this...
Note that there's probably other ways too,
but those are the ones i know,.,
Ok, Here we go...

METHOD#1
I guess i could start by saying that depending on the case you buy,
if it comes bundled with a remote control and some sort of IR Receiver LCD Screen,
like the SST-GD02B-MT case,
chances are that you'll be able to Power ON and OFF your HTPC...
So you'll have to do your own research here before buying your case...
Like me, i bough the Antec MicroFusion350 htpc case,
and it was bundled with a remote control...
it works hand in hand with its LCD Screen which is also an InfraRed Receiver...
So after putting all my htpc together and installed all needed drivers,
i was able to Power ON and OFF my HTPC...
Of course, it even works with my Harmony remote!
so, yeah, thats 1 way to do it,,,

METHOD#2
to continue a bit about ANTEC here,
ANTEC released some InfraRed Receivers you can use to enable such a feature....
To name a few:
*Antec VERIS Basic Infrared receiver
*Antec VERIS Elite Infrared receiver
the basic version fits in an external 3.5" Drive bay
while the Elite version fits in an external 5.25" Drive bay...
so keep that in mind before buying either of them,,,
Anyhow, once you hook them up,
you'll be able to Power ON and OFF your HTPC...
Of course, it'll even work with any Harmony remotes aswell!
so, yeah, thats another way to do it,,,

METHOD#3
SIMEREC.COM's PCS-1 or PCS-2 Universal IR Remote Switch
is a neat little InfraRed Receiver that once installed,
you'll be able to to Power ON and OFF your HTPC...
There's a little bit of work involved here to make it work,
as you need to drill a tiny whole in your HTPC case to install the IR receiver..
But on the other hand, it comes fully assembled and no soldering is required!
this thing works with 99% of IR remotes on the market including Harmony's!
But note that as of today, this wont allow you to control your HTPC,,,
I've talked with the guys at simerec.com and they said that by the END of october,
they should release a version of their 'Universal IR Remote Switch'
which will also enable users to actually control their HTPC's!!
This is great news! good job SIMEREC!!

METHOD#4
you know what a CIR enabled motherboard is?
CIR stands for 'Consumer InfraRed'...
Not all motherboards have a CIR header though...
Becareful when buying your motherboard if you want such a thing...
Anyhow, once you found a CIR enabled motherboard,
all is left for you to buy is a compatible CIR module to plug it in!
And thats usually the hard part,, these modules are very hard to find..
After doing some research, i stumbled upon ASROCK's website,
and i saw a couple of CIR enabled motherboards.
but the greatest thing here is that some of them are also bundled with an IR remote & a CIR module!!
Here are some popular CIR enabled ASROCK motherboards:
*ASRock B75M-ITX LGA1155 Mini-ITX
*ASRock H77M-ITX LGA1155 Mini-ITX
*ASRock H67M-GE/HT (B3) LGA1155 Micro-ATX
*ASRock A75M-ITX FM1 Mini-ITX
*ASRock A75M-HVS FM1 Micro-ATX
Now for ASROCK boards that aren't bundled with an IR remote & a CIR module,
you can buy the same 2 items as a package deal here --> ASRock Smart Remote
and if you only need the CIR Module and not the remote, contact --> ASROCK AMERICA

Also good to know, some INTEL motherboards have CIR headers too.
to make use of them, you'll need to buy this CIR Module Here.
As you see, there's a little bit of work involved
since you need to drill a tiny whole in your HTPC case to install the CIR receiver..

And if you feel like it,
you can even de-pin/re-pin the INTEL's CIR module
so that it works with ASROCK's CIR Headers!
This is how, click --> Here

About INTEL's CIR module,
Once the drivers are installed,
and CIR feature enabled in your BIOS,
your CIR Receiver will act as a Microsoft eHome Infrared Transceiver!
Your Harmony remote will love it!!

METHOD#5
After talking with the owner of Shop.PerfectHomeTheater.com
i feel confident enough to list this Internal IR Receiver --> Here
Altho designed to fit in the Wesena case,
this IR Receiver will work in any other HTPC's
as long as there's room to fit it in of course..
once again, there's a little bit of work involved
since you need to drill a tiny whole in your case to install this IR receiver..
but once done, you'll be able to power ON your HTPC from a complete OFF state.
They also sell a package including a RC620 Remote and the IR Receiver...
Owner also told me that the IR Receiver does work with Harmony remotes
but he didn't test this himself but he said: "some of my clients do" ...
Also note that this IR Receiver won't register as a Microsoft eHome Infrared Transceiver...

Finally,
i hope you've enjoy'ed the read and learned something along the way!!

But like i said, i just dont want to confirm somethind i dont know,,,
thats why i specified that these 4 methods are listed working under Windows O/S..
If they even work under Linux, then, SWEET!!

Again under linux,
maybe Powering ON/OFF your htpc will work with any of those 4 methods but,
using supplied IR receivers to also control XBMC Live is a different story
as we know that not all IR Receivers are Linux compatible out of the box,,,,

The tricky part is to cold boot your PC..........indeed. That's OS independent. It's a hardware solution.

Resume from S3 and putting it to sleep again is BIOS related and also works cross platform.

The actual USE of the remote within XBMC depends on the drivers. This is where Windows has an advantage, simply because there are more drivers available.

On the other hand, I still think for a dedicated HTPC, a Linux based machine is the way to go, for obvious reasons I'm not even going to discuss here. For the Xtreamer, Openelec provides an out of the box solution (on later builds) where the remote works flawless within XBMC. This is not yet possible for XBMC Live.

If you want more freedom (use of other programs etc), go with the Windows solution..............

Subliminal Aura mentioned to stay away from budget hardware. This is certainly not always true. Why bother to build a 900 dollar HTPC with prime components, only to find out - a year later - a really cheap more advanced solution appears on the market with even more features.

DragonFly Wrote:Subliminal Aura mentioned to stay away from budget hardware. This is certainly not always true. Why bother to build a 900 dollar HTPC with prime components, only to find out - a year later - a really cheap more advanced solution appears on the market with even more features.

I think the basic truth is don't cheap on your primary components brandwise. You don't need a high end mobo with SLI, USB3, or even DDR3, but do try to get a good brand mobo like Gigabyte even if its the lowest-end model.